By Michael Donoghue, Vermont News First

ALBURGH – An effort by a convicted cocaine and oxycodone drug dealer to regain a political seat on the Alburgh Selectboard has fallen short.

Local businessman Tom Ward defeated former Selectboard member Bernard Savage Sr., 259-203, during day-long balloting on Tuesday.

The two men, both running as write-in candidates on Vermont Town Meeting Day, had tied 144-144 forcing the run-off election.

The Islander newspaper in Grand Isle County had reported about two weeks before Town Meeting Day that Savage was running a last minute write-in campaign for a 3-year seat that nobody had sought.

The newspaper also reported Savage received a 15-month federal prison sentence after he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Burlington to a felony charge of conspiracy to distribute the two illegal drugs between October 2014 and June 2015, records show. They also note he was ordered to pay $5,100 in fines and court costs.

Savage, 67, was forced to step down from the board following his arrest.

The news story helped spark Ward, who moved to town about a dozen years ago, to step up to run for the same seat.

Alburgh, the farthest northwestern town in Vermont, had a serious candidate shortage at Town Meeting this year. Nobody filed for about a half dozen posts including two open seats on the Selectboard nor one for the School Board.

The Islander reported federal and state authorities raided both the home of Bernard and Patty Savage and their business B & P Autoworks on U.S. 2 in Alburgh on July 1, 2015. The newspaper said court records indicated that among the items seized during the day-long raid were 104 firearms – including at least 19 guns with no visible serial numbers, and various types of drugs: four grams of white powder believed to be cocaine, 67 grams of marijuana along with regulated pills — morphine sulfate (16), oxycodone (28), hydrocodone (6), Percocet (4) and tramadol (6), records show.

Investigators said they also found a non-operational clandestine methamphetamine lab in a shed on the Savage property. U.S. 2 was closed for part of the day and traffic re-routed as volunteers firefighters made the area safe.

Savage and his wife, Patricia, agreed to pay the U.S. government $75,000 to avoid losing their home and business.

His wife received a 30-day sentence after she pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor possession of oxycodone during a Nov. 13, 2014 drug sale by her husband, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Van de Graaf said in court.